Description

With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Nicola Bradbury, University of Reading.

Jane Austen teased readers with the idea of a 'heroine whom no one but myself will much like', but Emma is irresistible. 'Handsome, clever, and rich', Emma is also an 'imaginist', 'on fire with speculation and foresight'. She sees the signs of romance all around her, but thinks she will never be married.

Her matchmaking maps out relationships that Jane Austen ironically tweaks into a clearer perspective. Judgement and imagination are matched in games the reader too can enjoy, and the end is a triumph of understanding.show more

Back cover copy

Austen wrote about the world she inhabited, the English countryside, but was never constrained by her relatively narrow canvas. She endures for modern readers because of her wonderful comic irony and her acute observations of the nuances of social interaction, beautifully rendered in pellucid prose. As Emma Woodhouse attempts to orchestrate the romatic lives of those around her, Austen expertly reveals that she may not be as much in control as she would like to believe. Emma was first published in 1816, the year before Jane Austen died. Austen herself thought that Emma was someone "no one but myself will much like". In spite of Austen's fears, the indomitable Emma Woodhouse continues to win the loyal hearts of each new heneration of readers.show more